Ferris by Kate Dicamillo

After enjoying my first taste of author Kate DiCamillo’s writing last year when I read and reviewed The Puppets of Spelhorst (you can read my review for that title here), when this – her latest read – arrived, I was really looking forward to picking it up. With this being an entirely new story, I

Montgomery Bonbon: Mystery at the Manor (Montgomery Bonbon 3) by Alasdair Beckett-King, illustrated by Claire Powell

It’s funny how children’s aspirations change over the years. At various points growing up, I remember wanting to be a nurse, a librarian and – heavily influenced by watching Quincy as a teenager – a pathologist. Today’s youngsters are more likely to list career choices such as footballer or influencer but one job that still

Winner Takes Gold by Eloise Smith

I think it’s fair to say that I’m not a huge fan of sport and before the 2012 London Olympics, took absolutely no interest in it whatsoever. In general, I like to watch the events that I feel have a point to them – who can run the fastest, jump the highest – that sort

Blog Tour: Bringing Back Kay-Kay by Dev Kothari

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Bringing Back Kay-Kay, the brilliant debut novel from author Dev Kothari. Most of us have at least one sibling, and whether they are brothers or sisters, younger or older than ourselves, the relationships that we have with them are unlike those we have with anyone else.

The Bravest Word by Kate Foster

At the end of 2022, I was lucky enough to win a signed copy of this read from Kate Foster on Twitter, which she very kindly sent to me all the way from Australia. Arriving just before Christmas, I fully intended to read it in the new year and duly added it to my TBR

The Voyage of Sam Singh by Gita Ralleigh

As a child, once I was able to read to myself, most of what I picked up was filled with white British characters in stereotypical settings such as Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers boarding school. Occasionally, in the Dr Who books that I read, my hero and his assistants would head to Ancient Rome or to

Vivi Conway and the Haunted Quest (Vivi Conway 2) by Lizzie Huxley-Jones

An exciting and highly inclusive fantasy, when Vivi Conway was introduced to readers last year in her first outing, Vivi Conway and the Sword of Legend (you can read my review for that here), she quite rightly gained lots of fans – myself included – and so I was delighted when a copy of her

The Deadlands: Survival (The Deadlands 3) by Skye Melki-Wegner

The popularity of dinosaurs with children – and many adults – shows no sign of waning. While other animals that lack fur and cuteness are unlikely to find themselves the protagonists in stories aimed at young readers, it is the very lack of these details that make these now-extinct creatures the source of endless fascination

The Beast of Farrowfell (The Thief of Farrowfell 2) by Ravena Guron, illustrated by Alessia Trunfio

There are few things that bring a smile to my face quite like the unexpected arrival in the post of a sequel to a book I really enjoyed. An exciting magical story, packed with danger and thrills, The Thief of Farrowfell was a book I absolutely loved when I read it a little over a

Knowing the Score by Ros Roberts

Families are strange things. When I first met Mr S’s, I found their closeness to one another smothering while to this day he still doesn’t understand how my late father and I were estranged from one another for over 20 years with the result that I chose not to attend his funeral earlier this year.